RIVERS TO NBA

The news is out but in retrospect we all knew this was going to happen a long time ago.

Austin Rivers will forego his remainder years of college eligibility and declare for the NBA Draft.

The talk all year wasn't will he declare for the draft after the season, but where will most mock

Rivers is a great player and accomplished many good things at Duke, but look at the way he is leaving:

A) They ended the season losing to Lehigh....yes Lehigh......Now I know it's not all his fault but if you are the star of Duke, you can't lose to Lehigh. There shouldn't be any excuses.

B) He still hasn’t developed a great left hand. He continuously drives to the right and it seems like scouts have picked up on that and have done a great job defending him.

C) He also needs to find a way to play team basketball. We all know he can dominate with isolation, but in the NBA they are going to throw different packages and he has to be able to handle them.

I don’t have doubts that he can’t have a productive NBA career but he would have been better off by staying another year and improving his defense, team chemistry, and putting on some weight for his frame.

I suspect will be a pleasant surprise when he has NBA players on his team. He seem to slow the game down in his head this year. He will never be all world on D so why stay for that. Glad he is coming out. Let's be serious you get bigger in the L cause you have top notch strength coaches. No classes just Ball and working out.

I think his talents were a bit dumbed down at Duke as far as passing and such. For some reason, I think he's gonna be scary good in the league....not HOF, but a constant all-star and 20 PPG, 3APG type player.

Rivers has every single tool necessary to be a star in the NBA. On a team with a great distributor he is going to be a serious force. There are very few shooting guards in this draft that posess these tools:

- Knock down spot up shooter

- Can break anyone down off the dribble

- Has a solid 1-2 dribble pull up jumper and unlimited range

The better coach he has to start his career the better he will be in my opinion. Guess what, there is a lot of iso in the NBA, way more than in college. Sky is the limit.

Some of the arguemente against rivers confuse me, actually they are flat wrong. The kid went 27-6 and made his team a 2 seed yet people talk as if it was a complete failure of a season. In terms of dominating the ball, he average 15pts, only 2 more the curry, on 12 shots a game again, only 2 more then curry. I argue he is the biggest team player because he sacrificed to play team ball when his talents far exceeded theirs

Exactly, Rivers played on a team that overachieved, and he was there best player by far. Curry and Andre Dawkins shot them out of games, alot of times Rivers had to bail them out. His one on one game is much better than Crawford, Brooks, or Thornton, who usually settle for bad perimeter shots.

He does have alot of similarities to Jamal Crawford, and like Crawford he will take his lumps early in his career because he has alot to learn about defense, unselfishness, strength, and shot selection, along with growing up a bit more, but he will be a high level scorer in time because he's just too gifted not to. I think he'll struggle with adjusting to the physicality of the game and be inefficient early on, but he'll stand out from Crawford because he'll eventually be more efficient with his shots and with the ball.

That Bast*rd!!!! I wanted him to stay in school, but he plays to erratic for Coach K's system. It is a MUST he leaves though because he cannot learn in that Duke system. Kyrie had more of a learning curve then what Austin would have went through. Austin would be stunting his growth if he stays. I am a bit disappointed now that he stunted on Billy Donovan who would have brought the BEST out of him in that 3-Guard system down in Gainesville.

That Bast*rd!!!! I wanted him to stay in school, but he plays to erratic for Coach K's system. It is a MUST he bolts though because he cannot learn in that Duke system. Kyrie had more of a learning curve then what Austin would have went through. Austin would be stunting his growth if he stayed. I am a bit disappointed now that he stunted on Billy Donovan, who would have brought the BEST out of him in that 3-Guard system down in Gainesville.

I don't think this guy is going to be as good in the NBA as people think. I'm not high on his game.

- Too ball dominant. Tunnel vision.

- Can't move without the ball. His ability to play team ball is weak, which is sad considering he's a coach's son.

- Tweener. Two guard or point guard? He can't play point and he's undersized for the two. He doesn't have Dwyane Wade, Eric Gordon, etc length or strength. He's not a combo... He's an undersized ball dominant two guard. He's the Michael Beasley of guards.

- He's got a quick first step, but he's not an elite NBA athlete. He struggled finishing around the rim in college.

Since when is 6 foot 5 undersized for a shooting guard? D-Wade is 6 foot 4 and Gordon is 6 foot 3 and strength is the easiest thing to improve when transitioning to the NBA. He transformed his game from earlier in the year as well. He WAS way too ball dominant and modified his game to fit the system and basically be a ball rotation spot up shooter for Coach K. I believe that the OJ Mayo comparison is close but Rivers' shooting mechanics are sound which is why he will be a better scorer and player at the next level.

Like he stated Gordon and Wade have physical attributes (athletisism, length, strength) that Rivers does not have at the same hieght. Therefor he cannot compensate to the prototypical hieght and size of an NBA 2-gaurd which is about 6'6.

"Rivers will surely go within the lottery, his family connections will surely do his draft stock no harm as a lot of GM's will perhaps know him better than other college guys.
Also coming from a basketball family, he will know the NBA, have no issue about suddenly having a large contract to his name and I'd figure he should be highly coachable."-Hister